There is a peculiar friction to the digital textures of Skylarka and her new album, "Somnorine". It’s supposed to be chiptune-influenced synthwave, but listening to it feels less like browsing the internet and more like chewing on aluminum foil while watching Blade Runner on a CRT monitor that’s slowly degaussing. It’s a sensory contradiction bright, crystalline pop hooks wrestling with the deep, existential dread...

The first few bars of HZPROD’s new single, “War Within (Radio Edit),” don’t so much start a song as they do raise a curtain on a scene already in grim, perpetual motion. There’s a cinematic weight here, a feeling of vastness and confinement all at once. The beat hits with the grim finality of a heavy vault door swinging shut, trapping you inside the...